Being a young student has its perks. I can still live the carefree lifestyle of not worrying about retirement, age-related health problems or even feeding dinner to more people than myself. [1]

Although, as I’m getting older and nearing the prospect that I will soon be out job hunting and beginning a career, I can’t help but begin to think about how certain programs, namely Social Security and Medicare, are going to be different once I need them. Will they even exist? Will they even offer me the benefits I always thought I’d receive from them? As if stressing about student loan debt and wrinkles wasn’t bad enough to deal with as I get older, I’m now worried about my ability to retire or have access to health care when I need it in the future.

As I watch my parents prepare for retirement, I often wonder what it will be like when I reach that point in my life. Since I learned what it was, I knew Social Security would play a large role in my retirement. Social Security provides the largest share of retirement income for most Americans. Over 400,000 Colorado retirees depended on Social Security benefits in 2010 and the government wants to decrease it. Why? I hope the government decides that instead of spending money, in the form of tax breaks, for private retirement programs such as 401(k)s, they redirect those tax expenditures into Social Security. The private institutions that administer the private 401(k)s skim earnings off retirees in the form of high fees. Since Social Security is not a profit-making institution, there is no need to charge for these high fees. Let’s not forget to mention how 401(k)s fluctuate with the market, leaving all sorts of uncertainty. Comforting.

With record unemployment rates in our state and the lack of good paying jobs, many people depend on Social Security as a means to retire providing many people with their only source of income after age 62. The further we decrease this share, the more people will depend on Social Security as their sole income. I have many years until I reach retirement and if our government doesn’t expand Social Security then there is a good chance there will be nothing left to assist me when I retire. I don’t get nervous about getting old, but old and poor? That worries me a lot, especially since the elderly poverty rate in Colorado is already at 1 out of 10 and with Social Security cuts, that number would rise.

Not only am I watching my parents prepare for retirement, but I’m watching their health decline as well. I have a hard time thinking that I’ll ever have to depend on Medicare to cure what ails me, but what if I do rely on it? What if I depend on one of the hundreds of nursing homes in Colorado? When federal payments are reduced, I hope there will be enough staff to take care of me and the quality of food helps me sustain a healthy life, not just survive one.

Medicare is the most popular social program ever. This single-payer system is simple and uniform, ultimately making it cheaper to administer. This is an efficient system and it should be expanded. Imagine a world where Medicare is cut. Private health care providers will pick up the slack and we all know how costly those can be. Administrative costs alone are huge compared to Medicare, and think of the private health provider’s army of accountants and whatnot to manage all these bills and charging schemes they’ve created. This costs more, too. Americans waste billions each year paying for private health care providers’ profits, administrative costs, marketing and executive salaries. This doesn’t seem fair or right. Let’s not forget to mention how this places a burden on our state. If Medicare is cut, people will have to stay in our state exchanges longer and if these people are older (and sicker), their costs could put a financial burden on the exchanges. If they’ve been thrown into Medicare because Social Security cuts have made them poorer, well, that’s just another burden on the state.

So let’s expand these programs. Let’s join the rest of the civilized world and enact a Medicare-for-all approach. Let’s stop wasting money. When I reach the age my parents are, and retirement and doctor’s visits are things I now have to worry about, I hope Social Security and Medicare are there. I hope they’re thriving. I hope the government takes this Affordable Care Act seriously so I can get an annual wellness test and not pay ridiculous amounts for my prescription drugs, especially since I’m paying into the system now. As if getting older, finding a job, and saving some money weren’t hard enough, I now have to worry about whether 30 years in the future my retirement savings are going to even be there, or whether I will be able to afford my anti-wrinkle cream.

Mary Beth Jungers is a nutrition student at Metro State University of Denver.